Commercial Viability Of A Worm Farm
A worm farm is a great small project especially for people who love gardening. A small container converted into a farm can fit a small apartment or house which makes it even perfect. The casting or vermicast produced from worm farming or vermicomposting is a great fertilizer. When used in flower beds, you can expect to have flowers blooming earlier this year. If used in vegetable patches, expect tastier and better looking vegetables at harvest season.
Worm farming is a great small project but how would it work as a commercial endeavor? Well according to the business directory, worm farming is a good viable business if you know what you’re doing that is. Commercial worm farming involves breeding, selling and shipping worms and casting to clients. There’s quite a load of work even if you’re working with small little wrigglers. Sales of worms alone can reach at least $2,000 a month if you market your produce well enough and work your butt off in sales and marketing.
The concept of commercial production of worms and castings is basically the same as a home production one. You pile up red worms on a bedding of cardboard, leaves, and soil and place food waste on top and let the worms do the rest. In a couple of months the worms would have produced quite a large amount of castings and liquid fertilizer. Liquid fertilizer is the liquid produce from the worm farm. You can actually call it worm pee if you like. This liquid is rich and is very suitable as a fertilizer as well.
The number of worms or the size of the farm really depends on you. Just make sure you have a large enough container if you like to have large farm. The worms will usually control their own population so you don’t have to worry that much of having not enough worms. However, aside from worms, your farm would probably include some other creatures since it is practically the center of decomposition. More often than not, you will find molds, fungi, pot worms and even mites in there. Now, these creatures are not necessarily bad for they also help enrich the process of converting food wastes into rich fertilizers.
At times, there would be maggots and flies as well. Although, these also do not affect the process that much, but can be quite disgusting and you would like to remove them from the farm. There are some quick and easy ways to control maggots and flies and the first one would be by not placing meat as food for the worms. Meat, poultry, and dairy products will attract insects and create unpleasant odors from the farm. But if you stopped placing meat and yet the farm still smells bad, you can reduce the amount of food you give the worms. Probably, you have too much food residue now which is the reason it smells bad.
Maintaining a farm is not that difficult either. You need to keep the farm damp but not wet since water can easily drown your worms. A lot of people make that mistake. They water their farms too much that the worms get drowned.
If you notice the worms in your worm farm is not breeding, then it would be best to cover up the farm or place it in a much cooler and shadier place. Worms love damp and dark places. They work better that way and will help your farm produce more worms and more castings for fertilizers.
Source: https://positivearticles.com